Ashes Of Victory

then. 'It was addressed to Citizen Admiral Theisman. I guess they don't know he's not here.' She was rambling, and her jaw tightened as she forced herself back under control. 'It's from their commander, Citizen Admiral.'

'White Haven?' The question came out almost incuriously, but that wasn't the way he felt, and his eyes narrowed at her nod. 'What sort of message?'

'It came in in the clear, Citizen Admiral,' she said, and held out a message board. He took it from her and punched the play button, and a man in the black-and-gold of a Manticoran admiral looked out of the holographic display at him. He was dark haired and broad shouldered... and his hard eyes were the coldest blue Alec Dimitri had ever seen.

'Admiral Theisman,' the Manty said flatly, 'I call upon you to surrender this system and your surviving units immediately. We have just demonstrated that we can and will destroy any and all armed units, ships or forts, in this system without exposing our own vessels to return fire. I take no pleasure in slaughtering men and women who cannot fight back. That will not prevent me from doing precisely that, however, if you refuse to surrender, for I have no intention of exposing my own people to needless casualties. You have five minutes to accept my terms and surrender your command. If you have not done so by the end of that time, my units will resume fire... and we both know what the result will be. I await your response. White Haven, out.'

The display blanked. Dimitri stared at it for several seconds, his stocky body sagging around its bones. Then he handed the message board back to the com officer, squared his shoulders, turned to Sandra Connors, and made himself say the unthinkable.

'Ma'am,' his quiet voice cut the silence like a knife, 'I see no alternative.' He inhaled deeply, then went on. 'I request permission to surrender my command to the enemy.'

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

'Citizen Admiral Theisman, report to the bridge! Citizen Admiral Theisman, report to the bridge at once!'

Thomas Theisman's head jerked up from his book viewer as Citizen Lieutenant Jackson's voice rattled from the speakers. Theisman had been less than overwhelmed by Jackson when he first boarded the citizen lieutenant's boat. Not that he'd thought the man couldn't handle his present duties. In fact, Jackson was, in many ways, what Theisman considered the perfect courier commander: stolid, phlegmatic, predictable, and utterly incurious. Men like that were never tempted to tamper with or snoop around among the sensitive documents in their computers. From a security perspective, that was wonderful, but it didn't exactly recommend them for any job except that of a postman.

But the voice jarring from the intercom was anything but phlegmatic, and Theisman didn't even think about hesitating. Aboard a ship this small he could reach the bridge almost as quickly as he could have screened it, and he dropped the book viewer and was out his cabin hatch and thundering down the passage before it hit the decksole.

What in God's name can his problem be? The question crackled in Theisman's brain as he pounded towards the ladder. The passage here from Barnett was so routine, Denis and I almost died of boredom, and his translation back into n-space was obviously nominal. So what in hell is going on?!

He vaulted up the ladder onto the bridge, and his eyes automatically darted to the main view screen. It was in tactical mode, and his blood ran cold as he saw the two battlecruisers. They were barely three million kilometers distant, and their icons radiated the vicious, strobing rays of radar and lidar while a warning signal warbled.

My God, he thought almost calmly, they've got us locked up for missile fire!

He felt Citizen Lieutenant Jackson behind him and glanced over his shoulder. The dispatch boat's CO was white-faced and sweating, and his hands trembled visibly.

'What is it, Citizen Lieutenant?' Theisman made his voice as deep and calm as he could, and wished he could project that calm directly into Jackson's brain without the clumsy interface of language.

'I-I don't know, C-C-Citizen Admiral,' the citizen lieutenant stuttered. Then his chest swelled as he sucked in a huge breath. When he exhaled once more, it looked as if some of the calmness Theisman had tried to will into him must have taken, and he cleared his throat.

'All I know is that we made transit as usual, and everything seemed just fine, until all of a sudden those two—' he jabbed a finger at the battlecruisers on the plot '—lit us up and ordered me to cut my accel immediately or be destroyed. So I did that,' he astonished Theisman with a tight, death's head grin, 'and then they demanded my ID all over again. I sent it to them, and they... they said they didn't accept it, Citizen Admiral! They ordered me to leave the system! But I told them I couldn't. That I had you and Citizen Commissioner LePic aboard and I was supposed to deliver you to the capital. But they said no one — no regular Navy ships, that is — were getting through, and when I insisted my instructions came directly from the Octagon and the Committee, they ordered me to get you on the com in person, and... and...'

His voice trailed off, and he raised both hands in a gesture of helplessness. It was hardly the picture of a decisive CO, but if his account was even half accurate, Theisman could hardly fault him for that. The citizen admiral felt sweat popping out along his own hairline, but he made himself nod calmly, then turned and beckoned the com officer out of her chair. She hastened to obey, scrambling up as if to put as much distance as physically possible between her and the com station, and Theisman took her place.

It had been years since he last personally placed a ship-to-ship com request, but he hadn't forgotten how, and his fingers moved quickly while his brain tried to imagine what the hell could have happened. It had obviously been drastic, and 'drastic' was a word that terrified anyone who'd lived through the massive upheavals of the People's Republic over the last decade. The part of him that concerned itself with minor matters like survival had no interest at all in comming the waiting battlecruisers. All it wanted to do was tell Jackson to turn and slink away, exactly as ordered, and as he worked, it occurred to Thomas Theisman that this would no doubt be an excellent time for an ex —naval officer to consider a lengthy vacation somewhere like Beowulf or Old Earth.

But he was an admiral of the Republic, however he'd gotten there. That gave him responsibilities he simply could not turn his back upon, and so he waited while the com link came up and steadied.

Despite himself, Theisman's lips tightened as he saw the woman at the other end. She wore the crimson- and-black of State Security, and her narrow face was cold and hard. Even across the vacuum, Theisman could feel her hatred and desire to go ahead and fire. He didn't think it was because of anything Jackson had said, or because of who Thomas Theisman was. She wanted an excuse to blow something — anything — apart, and a fresh wave of tension rippled through his belly.

'I am Citizen Admiral Thomas Theisman,' he told that hating face as calmly as he could. 'And you are?'

At three million klicks, it took more than ten seconds for his light-speed transmission to reach her... and another ten for her response to reach him. The delay in transit did not seem to have improved it.

'Citizen Captain Eliza Shumate, State Security,' she snapped. 'What business do you have in Haven, Theisman?'

'That's between myself and... the Committee, Citizen Captain,' Theisman replied. He wasn't certain why he'd switched from 'Citizen Secretary McQueen' to 'the Committee' at the last moment, but when his instincts shrieked that loudly, he made a point of listening to them.

'The Committee.' It wasn't a question the way Shumate said it, and the hate in her eyes flared higher. But Theisman didn't flinch, and a sliver of grudging respect crept into her expression as he glared back at her unyieldingly.

'Yes, the Committee. Citizen Commissioner LePic and I are under orders to report directly to Citizen Chairman Pierre on our arrival.'

Something changed in Shumate's eyes yet again — a flicker of something besides hate or suspicion, though